Fundraising bid to get defibrillator in Hatton Park

Hatton Park WI are currently raising funds for a defibrillator, that will be installed at the village hall.
Pictured: Helen Greenly, Gwyn Mullins, Patrizia Williams & Tina Davenport. NNL-171024-235652009

A Women’s Institute (WI) group in Hatton Park have launched a fundraising campaign to help buy a defibrillator for their community.

The Hatton Park WI are currently trying to raise at least £2,000 to help pay for a defibrillator that would be installed at the village hall.

The WI group currently had around 40 members and their president is Tina Davenport.

Helen Greenly, who is treasurer of the Hatton Park WI, said: “Hatton Park is a big development that houses about 750 families and we have no defibrillator.

“Our WI group has been established for more than 10 years.

“We have decided that something needed to be done so we have decided to raise money to buy a defibrillator that will benefit the whole community.”

The group are hoping to raise the money in two ways, firstly by applying for a £1,000 grant from the Aviva Community Fund and secondly through a Christmas fair.

The Aviva Community Fund helps hundreds of projects in the UK every year. Groups, charities and organisations can submit their projects for funding, which then go to a voting stage.

If the project gets a high amount of votes from the public the project could go to the finals, where a panel of judges will award the grants.

Helen continued: “The defibrillator will cost around £2,000 so we are hoping if we get the grant we can raise the rest with our Christmas fair on December 3.

“There will be stalls with Christmas gifts and items, a raffle, tombola and tea and cake.

“We are hoping that if all the money is raised that we can get the defibrillator installed early next year and then after that we aim to work with Warwickshire First Responders to offer training in CPR and the defibrillator.

“There is no point providing a defibrillator and nobody know what to do in an emergency.

“There are terrible statistics about sudden cardiac arrest rates. It is one of the biggest preventable killers in the UK and it has been established that by having access to a defibrillator it can increase a patient’s survival by 80 per cent.

“Sudden cardiac arrest is not just something that happens to the elderly or middle aged it can happen to anybody.

“It is really important as the WI to help the health outcome of our community.

“We are appealing for people to vote for us because the more votes we can get the more likely we are to get the money. Every vote will count.”

The Hatton Park WI will be holding a Christmas fair on December 3 at Hatton Park Village hall from 11am-3pm in a bid to raise £1,000.

For donations, enquiries and offers of help for the Christmas fair or enquiries about the Hatton park WI in general contact them on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HattonParkWI/ or email hattonparkwi@outlook.com or find them on twitter @hattonparkwi